Page 52 of Short Stack 3

“Oh, shut up,” I say as she and Darcy laugh.

“Why are you bothered about winning the competition anyway?” Darcy asks, bending to grab Brian’s shoulders. “The prize is just a plaque.”

“A little bird told me that Barbara is making it a cash prize.” I take Brian’s legs, and we start to stagger along. With twenty rooms in each corridor, we have a way to go. “Five hundred quid, babe. We could go away for the weekend.”

He stops dead. “Not on the James Bond tour, Freddie.”

“Really?”

“Why would you want to go on that? You hadsucha lot to say when we watched the film where he spanked that Bond girl,” Milly points out. “You said it was sexist.”

“Darcy spanked me in the same way, and I revised my opinion.”

Darcy shakes his head. “I just want a weekend with lots of sex and no literary references whatsoever. Is that too much to ask?”

“Good luck,” Milly says. “He was talking in his sleep last week about Jane Austen and her brewery business.”

I huff. “She brewed beer for herfamily. She didn’t own Greene King.” I grin at her. “Will you go downstairs and check if the rest of the guests are okay and give his wife another ring?”

“Will do.”

She sets off down the corridor, softly cursing at her long skirt getting in the way, and we resume staggering towards Brian’s room.

After a few steps, I groan. “This is like the corridor inThe Shining.”

Darcy grunts, looking distracted, and I stop walking again, feeling the concern bubble up stronger than before.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“I want to know what’s wrong with you. You’ve been distracted all week.”

“I just wanted to talk to you about something.”

My stomach drops as if I’m in a free-falling lift. “Oh my god,” I breathe. “Do you want to finish with me?”

“What?” He looks panicked, and I relax a little. “No. of course, I don’t.” His eyes widen. “Do you?”

“No,” I say forcefully. “Never. I love you.”

His smile fills his face. “Not as much as I love you.”

“Newcastle United,” Brian slurs as his eyes open. “That was a penalty.”

“Oh, shut up,” I snap.

Darcy shakes his head. “What happened to that cash prize?”

We pick up our steps again. My shoulders are screaming at Brian’s weight. I don’t usually lift anything heavier than a cocktail. However, I’m more concerned about Darcy. He means everything to me, and I need to help him if something is wrong.

“What’s up, then?” I say persistently. “And don’t say nothing because I know something is bothering you. Is it university?” Itry to think of educational problems. “Has your grant run out? Did you dig up the wrong grave?”

“I’m an archaeology student. Not Burke and Hare.”

“Have you written the wrong paper? Oh mygod, are you failing the course? Don’t worry, love. Everything will be fine and —”

“I want you to move in with me.”

The words are loud in the silent corridor, and I gape at him as my heart starts to hammer. “What did you say?”

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